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NEW OHLEANS: 
PICAYUI^E STEAM PRESS, 66 CAMT STKEET. 

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IP 

REPORT. 



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The Committee of Two Hundred Citizens who 
were appointed at a meeting of the resident popu- 
lation of this city, on the 12th of December last, 
submit to their fellow citizens the following Report : 

In compliance with the instructions of the meet- 
ing, a portion of the Committee proceeded to the 
city of Washington, and waited upon the President 
of the United States and upon the Supreme Court. 
They requested the President to submit their 
memorial, with an argument in its support, to Con- 
gress. As Congress was about to take a recess 
until the 6th of January of this year, they pre- 
pared and circulated an address to the people of the 
United States, in which the discontents, pressures, 
and greivances under which the people of the State 
were suffering from the unconstitutional and revo- 
lutionary action of a portion of the federal authori- 
ties, were exhibited with moderation and candor 
for their consideration. During this period, and 
for some time after, the government rightfully des- 
ignated as the *' Pinchback government," occupied 
the State Capitol by the permission of the Marshal 
of the United States, in whose custody it had been 
placed, and under the support of the standing 
army of the United States, which had been fur- 
nished upon the requisition of the Marshal by the 



Coiniiiaiidiiig General in the department. The 
State also witnessed the organization of another 
government, which fonnd a more legitimate sup- 
port in the respect, contidence and approving senti- 
ments of the people. Upon the reassemblage of 
the houses of Congress, the President submitted 
the memorial of the Citizens and other documents, 
and a portion of the inquiries which were suggested 
in them came before the standing committee of the 
Senate on Privileges and Elections for prosecution 
and report. 

It is but justice to your Committee to affirm that 
every matter of fact, and every coiichision of law 
set forth in their memorial have liad ample con- 
firmation in the testimony collected, and the reports 
submitted to the Senate by that Committee. The 
report of the majority of that Committee contains 
the following just condemnation of the mandates 
and orders pronounced or allowed by the Judge 
presiding in the Circuit Court, of which your Com- 
mittee were instructed to complain. They say "we 
now come to the saddest chupter in this melanclwiy 
business — the interference of federal authorities 
with the afiairs of the State of Louisiana." * * * 
Tliey detail minutely tlie proceedings that had 
taken place in the Circuit Court, and after a length- 
ened examination, they conclude : " Viewed in 
any light in which your Committee can consider 
them, the order and injunctions made and granted 
by Judge Durell in this case (Kellogg case), are 
most reprehensible, erroneous in point of law, and 
are wholly void for want of jurisdiction ; and your 
Committee must express sorrow that a judge of the 



United States Court sliould have proceeded in such 
flagrant disregard of liis duty, and liave so over- 
stepped the limits of federal jurisdiction." Tliey 
sa}", in reference to the suit of C 0. Antoine, that 
" indeed it is impossible not to see that this bill was 
filed, and the restraining order thereon was issued 
for the sole purpose ot accomplishing what no fed- 
eral court has the jurisdiction to do — the organization 
of a State Legislature. And your Committee can- 
not refrain from expressing their astonishment that 
any judge of the United States should thus unwar- 
rantably have interfered with a State government, 
and knoAV no language to express their condemna- 
tion of such a proceeding." Senator Turnbull, 
who for many j^ears had been chairman of the ju- 
diciary committee of the Senate, made a sepa- 
rate report. In this report he is equally explicit. 
He says : " In no conceivable case could a United 
States Court or judge have jurisdiction to issue 
orders, such as were promulgated by Judge Durell. 
As well might a United Stated District Judge 
make an order to seize the Eederal Capitol and pre- 
vent all members from entering the building, ex- 
cept such as he should declare duly elected." Would 
the President direct General Emory to furnish the 
troops to execute such an order ? 

Mr. Senator Hill of the Committee says : 

"Assenting as I do in the main to the correctness 
of the statement of facts touching the recent elec- 
tion in Louisiana, and the history of the legal pro- 
ceedings connected therewith, as set forth in the 
report of the committee, and commending the just 



tliougli severe criticism of a j adicial tribunal for its 
improper intervention, I am still of opinion that 
tiie remedy for existing evils as proposed by the 
committee is of questionable expediency," etc., etc. 

Senator Morton says : " The conduct of Judge 
Durell, sitting in the Circuit Court, cannot be justi- 
fied or defended. Ho grossly exceeded his juris- 
diction and assumed the exercise of powers to 
which he could lay no claim. * * * Xhe 
pretence that in a suit to perpetuate testimony the 
Court could go beyond the natural and reasonable 
jurisdiction to decide who constituted the legal Re- 
turning Board under the laws of Louisiana, and to 
enforce the rights of such as it might determine to 
be members of that board and to enjoin others 
who were not, is without any foundation in law or 
logic. 

"In the Antoine case Judge Durell not only 
assumed to determine who constituted the legal 
Returning Board, but to prescribe who should be 
permitted to take part in the organization of the 
Legislature, and to enjoin all persons from taking 
part in such organization who Avere not returned 
by the Lynch Board as elected : and this assump- 
tion was made in the face of the express provision 
in the act of 1870, that its benefits should not ex- 
tend to candidates for Electors, for Congress or for 
the State Legislature. 

" His order issued in the Kellogg case to the 
United States Marshal, to take possession of the 
State House, for the purpose of preventing unlawful 
assemblages, under which the Marshal called to his 



aid a portion of tlie army of the United States, as 
a l^osse cominitatis^ can only be cliaracterized as a 
gross usurpation." 

The quotations we have made from the reports 
to the Senate, embody an vjianivious oimrion -of a 
Standing Committee of the Senate of the United 
States. They have an intrinsic value not merely 
from the rank of the members of that committee, 
but for the additional fact that they are impar- 
tial, disinterested judgments, rendered from a sense 
of the gravity of the questions and of the neces- 
sity for a clear and explicit vindication of a violat- 
ed Constitution. These conclusions naturally give 
rise to the inquiry, what are the force and operation 
of judicial orders so characterized'? 

The Supreme Court of the United States at the 
time that Marshall presided as Chief Justice, and 
Baldwin prepared the opinion of the C^ourt, enable 
us to return an answer to such an inqury : 

" The line which separates error in judgment 
from the usurpafion of power is very deiinite : in the 
one case it is a record importing absolute verity ; 
in the other mere um-ste papery 

We know of no principle more established by 
precedent and professional opinion than that Avhich 
denies any authority or validity to judicial acts not 
warranted by the constitution and laws of the land 
defining the jurisdiction of the Judge — = — . Tlie 
most solemn proceedings of a court of justice are 
void which are done coram non judice. 

But the people of this State have been spectators 
of their State Capitol occupied by an executive 



officer of the courts with a portion of the standing 
army at his command, maintaining a Legislature 
empannelled by judicial orders, and claiming to 
exercise all the powers granted by the people to 
their oyn legislative department for seven weeks, 
which judicial orders every stander-by miglit safely 
make an oalh were destitute of all authority or 
claim for respect and obedience. 

The Committee of the Senate animadvert with 
severity upon the fact that in making the seizure 
of the State Capitol, the Marshal had no judicial 
process at all. The process act of 1792, which was 
designed to put a curb upon the Judges of the 
Courts of the United States, by requiring ail of their 
process to be authenticated, was disregarded in all 
of its requirements, and this measure so startling 
in other particulars, rests upon an order issued 
under the individual signature of the Judge. In 
the time of the Plantagents and of the Tudors, 
who, likewise, claimed to rule by a divine right, it 
was determined by all of the justices that a com- 
mission by the King to take a man's goods or im- 
prison his body without indictment or suit of the 
party or other due process, is against law — and su(;h 
is the Constitution of the United States. One of 
the causes of impeachment of the Cardinal Wolsey 
was " that he hath granted injunctions by writ and 
the parties never called thereunto, nor bill put in 
against them and by reason thereof divers subjects 
have been put from the lawful possession of their 
lands and tenements." 

The State House was the property of the State — 
the State was not only not a defendant in the cause 



but by the Constitution tlie judicial power of the 
United States was restrained from subjecting her 
to the process of the Circuit Court. When we 
recall the sensibility manifested at the search of 
the frigate Chesapeake, the impressment of seamen, 
the burning of the steamer Caroline, the entry of a 
Mexican army upon the frontiers of Texas, some 
allowance should be made for tlie indignant senti- 
ment that has been expressed at the armed occupa- 
tion for seven weeks of the Capitol of the State 
under judicial orders, which none has been able to 
defend as lawful or right by a people who have not 
been wanting in State pride. The order of .events 
in this lamentable history of judicial extravagance 
is that a restraining order, excessive in its nature, 
as shown in the extract from Senator Morton's re- 
port, was made in the case of Kellogg on the lOtli 
of November last. This order was discussed in 
the Court, and was held under advisement until the 
0th of December. In the night of the 5th of De- 
cember, prior to the delivery of any opinion upon 
the motion to continue the order, the order of 
seizure was made at the private lodgings of the 
Judge. Two of the attorneys for the plaintilf, 
(Kellogg), were sent for, and they and the Marshal 
of the Court were present. 'No motion or petition 
for such an order was made, nor does these appear 
on the record, otherwise than from the recitals in 
the paper what grounds were laid for its signature. 
The attorneys assisted in its preparation, and the 
Marshal advised its execution in the darkness of 
tlie night. It was delivered to them at a late hour, 
and the seizure took place about two o'clock A. M. 



8 

The testimony collected by the Committee of the 
Senate does not disclose any other material fact in 
reference to it. 

But among the papers submitted is a telegram 
which we co^jy, as apparently, a part of the res 
gesta : 

Department of Justice, > 
December 3, 1872. ^ 

S. B. Packard, United States Marshal, I^ew Or- 
leans, Louisiana : 
You are to enforce the decrees and mandates of 
the United States Courts no matter by whom re- 
sisted, and General Emory will furnish you with 
necessary troops for that purpose. 

George H. Williaivis, 

Attorney General. 

We assume that some military superior of Gen- 
eral Emory, probably the Commanding General of 
the Army had, according to the usual form of mili- 
tary communications, notice of this order. 

We also assume that all of the persons present 
at the nocturnal session of the Circuit Court of the 
United States at the private lodgings of the Judge, 
had notice likewise. 

In the testimony of the District Attorney and 
the Marshal before the Committee of the Senate, 
we do not find there were inquiries as to the cause 
of the order, nor discussions of its validity or ne- 
cessity. The only matter testified to is, as to the 
manner of framing it, the agencies employed and 
the time for its execution. 

The secrecy and the celerity exhibited in the 



9 

preparation and execution of this order dated 5tli 
December, in the night time, resembles more the 
tactics of a military campaign than a proceeding 
in Chancery ; and we cannot but notice the inver- 
sion of the relations that the afhiir discloses. 

Assuming that the telegram of the third came 
from the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Navy and Militia of the United 
States, it seems to direct an asmiUt upon the State 
House of Louisiana with no better arms than a 
chancery order, while in the Conrt where civil 
matters were generally disposed of the execution of 
process is provided for with all the silence, stealth 
and surprise of a perilous military expedition, 
requiring artillery and a Major General's coop- 
eration. 

But we may say, that tlie jn-ofound humility of 
the President of the United States and of his 
Attorney Creneral Williams, in accepting the decree 
and mandate of this Circuit Court as entirely 
infallible, and too sacred to be the subject of any 
inquiry, and that the secular force of the nation 
should be spontaneousl}' volunteered to enforce 
whatsoever mandate or order it might procreate, 
is, of the scenes in what the committee of the 
Senate have termed, " the Comedy of Errors and of 
Frauds " of Eederal interference in the domestic 
affairs of the State of Louisiana, not the least note- 
worthy. We know of no such faith in all Israel. 

We are so (confused by such anomolous and 

eccentric transpositions, that we can only regret 

that the committee of the Senate did not inquire 
2 



10 

liow they were accomplislied, and have furnished 
ns with the negotiations, discussions, and prelimi- 
nary arrangements, to show how this nielaniorpho- 
sis took phice. ****** 

Upon the day following the date of the order, the 
following telegram was dispatched : 

Kew Oeleas^s, Cth December, 1872. 
Attoii:ney General Williams : 

Returning Board, provided by election law of 
1870, under which the election was held, and ichich 
the United States Court sanctions, promulgated in 
the official journal this morning, the official result 
of the election for the Legislature. The House 
stands 77 liepublicans and 32 Democrats ; the 
Senate, 28 Republicans and 8 Democrats. The 
Board counted the ballots attached to the affidavits 
of colored persons, wrongfully prevented from 
voting, which were filed with the Chief Supervisors. 
S. B. PACKARD, U. S. Marshal. 

As the Department of Justice had no concern 
with such matters, and a return of such facts was 
not within the province of the Marshal, it is possible 
that this may not be genuine. 

The orders contained in the telegram of the 3d 
of December, giving such a large control to a 
subordinate officer of a Court to enforce non-exist- 
ing orders Avitli an armed force before oifers of 
resistance, departs so widely from the practice of 
the Federal Government, that the committee cannot 
refrain from bringing to the notice of the people 
the facts that accompanied it. They are aware of 



11 

the contents of the 13th section of the act of May, 
1871, which renders it " hiwfnl for the President of 
the United States to employ such part of the hind 
or naval forces of the United States, or of the 
militia, as shall be necessary to aid in the execution 
of judicial process" under that act. The acts of 
Congress of 1795 and 1807 contain authority to the 
President for similar objects. The act of Congress 
of 1818 invests the President Avith the same extent 
of authority to enforce obedience to the neutrality 
acts. 

But it would be ditficult to iind any instance in 
which any President has, in advance of any public 
demonstration, and witliout anj" previous applica- 
tion, delegated to a subordinate otficer an authority 
like that contained in the telegraphic dispatch 
of the 3d of December from the Department 
of Justice. It is a notorious fact, that the pre- 
siding otiicers in the Circuit Courts of the Unit- 
ed States in this circuit, have experienced dif- 
ficulty, and, as some supposed, had encountered 
personal danger in their eitbrts to enforce those 
laws in the judicial tribunals, but it is believed 
that none of them deemed it necessary to invoke 
the aid of the standing army to maintain the su- 
premacy of the laws. The employment of the 
standing army as an ordinary instrument of civil 
administration is dangerous to the supremacy of 
law, and in the end would not fail to subvert not 
only law, but the government itself. 

But the employment of the army not to enforce 
the laws, but to enforce mandates which exceed the 
power and jurisdiction of any Court of the Uiiited 



12 

States, must be regarded by every patriot as a great 
national calauiity. 

The State capitol did not belong to any party, to 
any cause in the Circuit Court of the United States ; 
nor was its possession involved in any of tiie issues 
of any cause ; nor was its occupation asked for by 
any petition or motion of party in the suit. 

Possession liaving been acquired on the morning 
of the tith of December, the next stage in the pro- 
gress of events was to empanuel the Legislature, 
tlie composition of which had been announced by 
the " Returning Board Avhich the United States 
Court sustains," and promptly communicated to 
the department of justice in the telegram we have 
copied. C. C. Antoine, a colored person, and not 
to be suspected of capacity to conceive the curious 
production which has been prepared in his name, 
was, probably, under some conscription, detailed to 
be the plaintiii' in the second suit. His bill was 
filed the day subsequently, and the most anomalous 
writ, called" an injunction, issued upon it, to be 
found in the annals of courts of justice. It has 
been branded in appropriate language by every 
member of the standing committee of the Senate. 
On the day of the 9th of December, Pinchback went 
into the Senate thus empannelled under the judi- 
cial process and took the Presidency. The city post- 
master, Lowell, now under accusation before the 
authorities of the United States for embezzlement 
and larceny, Avas selected to preside over tlie House 
of Representatives. An impeachment (a mockery 
of the statutes of tlie State) was improvised against 
the Governor, and with the aid of force Piuchback 



13 

assumed, the office of the Governor of the State. 
At this date Pinchback did not legally hold any 
civil office within the State. His office of Senator 
in the Legislature had expired on the 4th of No- 
A^ember, and his successor had been elected. The 
constitution of the State does not know of a Gov- 
ernor or Lieutenant Governor who has not been 
elected by the people. But it ordains : ''''That the 
General Assembly may j)rovide by law for the case of 
removal^ impeachment^ death^ resignation^ disability^ or 
refusal to qualify, of both the Governor and the Lieutenant 
Governor, DECLARING WHAT OFFICER SHALL ACT AS 

GovEE]!JOR ; and such officer shall act accord- 
ingly until the disability be removed, or the re- 
mainder of the term." Where there is a vacancy or 
disability affecting both the Governor and Lieuten- 
ant Governor, the office must be tilied hy some 
other officer of the State, who shall have been 
previously designated by law. Pinchback, at the 
time that he usurped the office of Governor, was 
merely a private citizen, not entitled to a place in 
the Senate, or authorized to interfere in its pro- 
ceedings, ^o constitution could be more explicit. 

We might be amused by this frolic of fortune 
which threw this person into the office of Governor 
of the State, and might commend the superior dex- 
terity and address with which he disappointed all 
the managers of the scandalous intrigue we are de- 
veloping by his election to the Senate of the United 
States against their opposition, if we were not resi- 
dents of the State and concerned about its honor, 
its reputation and its prosperity. 

The composition of this legislative body is due to 



14 

the returning board which " the United States 
Court sustains." The proceedings of that board 
were examined by the Committee of the Senate 
from whose report we shall extract a very graphic 
description. The Committee say : 

" On the 6th of December. 1872, the Lynch Board, 
Bovee (who was then acting as Secretary of State 
in place of Herron), Lynch, Longstreet and Haw- 
kins, pretended to have canvassed the returns of 
the election, and certified to the Secretary of State 
that Kellogg had been elected Governor ; Antoine 
Lieutenant Governor; Clinton, Auditor; Eield, 
Attorney General ; Brown, Superintendent of Edu- 
cation, and Deslondes, Secretary ot State, aud also, 
certified a list of persons whom they had deter- 
mined to be elected to the Legislature. There is 
nothing in all the comedy of errors and frauds 
under consideration uiore indefensible than the irre- 
tended canvass of this board." 

The following are some of the objections to the 
validity of their proceedings : 

" 1. The board had been abolished by the act of 
November 20th. 

" 2 The board was under valid and existing in- 
junctions from acting at all; and an injunction in 
the Armistead case restraining it from making any 
canvass not based upon official returns of the elec- 
tion. 

"3. Conceding the board was in existence, and 
had full authority over the returns, it had no returns 
to canvass. 

*' The returns from the parishes had been [made 



/ 



15 

under the law of 1870, to the Governor, and not one 
was before the Lynch Board.^'' 

It was testified before your committee by Mr. 
Bovee himself, who participated in this canvass by 
the Lynch Board, that they were determined to 
have a Republican Legislature, and made their 
canvass to that end. The testimony abundantly 
establishes the fraudulent character of that canvass. 
In some cases they had what were supposed to be 
copies of the original returns ; in other cases they ^ 

had nothing but newspaper statements, and in 
other cases where they had nothing to act upon, 
they made estimates based upon their knowledge 
of the political complexion of the parish of what 
the vote ought to have been. They also counted a 
large number of affidavits purporting to be sworn 
by voters who had been wrongfully denied regis- 
tration, or the right to vote, many of which affidavits 
they must have known to he forgeries. It was testified 
by one witness that he forged over a thousand affida- 
vits, and delivered them to the Lynch Board 
while it was in session. It is quite unnecessary to 
waste time in considering this part of the case; 
EOR no person can examine the testimony even so cursorily 
without seeing that this pretended canvass HAD ^O SEM- 
BLANCE OF INTEGRITY. 

Be it remembered that it was this board " that 
the United States Court sustains " as the MarsJial in- 
formed the Department of Justice, when he inform- 
ed it of the precise political complexion it would 
have. These were the returns for wjiich the An- 
toine suit was contrived to carry into execution by 
the injunction order granted upon the day follow- 



16 

ing its publication. The mombers thus returned 
were establisbed in tbo State House tlien in tbe 
custody of tbe Marsbal of tbe Court witli a part of 
tbe standing army x\t bis disposal, and witb an 
order to call for wbiitever more be required. It 
was tbrougb tliese returns, and tbe acts to enforce 
tbem, tbat Pincbback was enabled to run bis bril- 
liant career of imposture as Governor and until 
be readied tbe Senate amid tbe piteous groans and 
lamentations of tbe greedy aspirants, wbo supposed 
be was a servant and a slave, instead of being tbeir 
master and overseer. 

We come now to wbat is to us tbe saddest cbap- 
ter in all of tbis strange story. Tbe army of tbe 
United States was still occup} ing tbe State Capitol 
— tbere was a lawful Governor, wbo Avas to bold bis 
office until January, 1873, and wbo could not be 
represented by sucb a sbam as Pincbback ; tbere 
Avas a judiciary composed of men of cbaracter and 
intelligence, Avbo bad been latelv cbosen bv tbe 
votes of tbe people ; tbere must be, so tbe usurpers 
tbougbt, a more decided and autboritative support 
tban even tbe mandates and writs of tbe Federal 
Court, as executed, could atford. We find a rcA^ela- 
tion in tlie report of tbe Committee of tbe Senate, 
tbe five telegrams Avhicb embody tbis bistor^^ and 
wbicb we copy : 

[telegram.] 

" New Orleais'S, December 6, 1872. 
" President Grai^^t : 

" Marsbal Packard took possession of State House 
tbis morning, at an early bour, Avitb military posse, 



17 

in obedience to a mandate of tlic Circuit Court, to 
prevent illegal assemblage of persons in disguise of 
authority of Warmotlrs Returning Board, in viola- 
tion of injunction of Circuit Court. Decree of 
Court just rendered declares Wavmotli's Keturning 
Board illegal, and orders the returns of the election 
to be forthwith placed before the legal board. Tliis 
board will probably soon declare the result of the 
election of officers of State and Legislature, which 
will meet in State House with protection of Court. 
The decree was sweeping in its provisions, and if 
enforced will save the Rqmhlican. majority and gioe 
Louisiaud a Repvhlican Legislature and State govern- 
ment^ and check Warnioth in his usurpations. War- 
moth's Democratic supporters are becoming dis- 
gusted with him and charging that his usurpations 
are ruining their cause. 

" JAS. F. CASEY." 
(Louisiana Investigation, page 55.) 



[telegeam.J 

" ¥bw Orleans, December 11, 1872. 
*' PfiESiDEijT Grain T : 

" Parties interested in the success of the Demo- 
cratic part}', particularly the Xew Orleans Ti??ies, 
are making desperate efforts to array the people 
against us. Old citizens are dragooned into an op- 
position they do not feel, and pressure is hourly 
growing : our members are poor and our adversa- 
ries are rich, and offers are made that are difficult 
for them to withstand. There is danger that they 

will break our quorum. The delav in placing 
3 



18 

troops at disposal of Governor Piiicliback, in ac- 
cordance with joint resolution of Monday, is dis- 
heartening our friends and cheering our eneniieSo 
If requisition of Legislature is complied with, all 
difficulty will be dissipated, the party saved and 
everything go on smoothly. If this is done, the 
tide will be turned at once in our favor. The real 
underlying sentiment is with us if it can but be 
encouraged. Governor Pinchback acting with 
great discretion, as is the Legislature, and they will 
so continue. 

*' JAS. E. CASEY, Collector:' 
(Louisiana Investigation, page 58.) 



[telegram.] 

^' Kew Okleaxs, December 12, 1872. 
" President Grant : 

" The condition of affairs is this : The United 
States Circuit Court has decided which is the legal 
board of Canvassers. LTpon the basis of that deci- 
sion a Legislature has been organized in strict con- 
foiniity with the laws of the State, Warmoth im- 
peached, and thus Pinchback, as provided by the 
Constitution, became Acting Governor. The Chief 
Justice of the Su[)reme Court organized the Senate 
into a Court of Impeachment, and Associate Jus- 
tice Talliaferro administered oath to Governor 
Pinchback. The Legislature fully organized has 
proceeded in regular business since Monday. !N^ot- 
withstanding this, Warmoth has organized a pre- 
tended Legislature, and it is proceeding with pre- 
tended legislation. A conflict between these two 



19 

organizations may at any time occur. A conflict 
may occur at any hour, and in my opinion tliere is 
no safety for the legal government without the i^ed- 
eral troops are given in compliance with the requi- 
sition of the Legislature. The Supreme Court is 
known to be in sympathy with the Republican 
State government. If a decided recognition of 
Governor Pinchback and the legal Legislature were 
made, in my judgment it would settle the whole 
matter. General Longstreet has been appointed 
by Governor Pinchback as Adjutant General of y 

State Militia. 

"JAS. P. CASEY." 

(Louisiana Investigation, page 59.) 



[telegram.] 

" Kew Oklea:n^s, December 11, 1872. 
"Hoif. Geo. Williams: 

" If President in some way indicate recognition, 
Governor Pinchback and Legislature would settle 
everything. Our friends here acting discreetly. 

" W. P. KELLOGG." 
(Louisiana Investigation, page 56.) 



[telegram.] 

" Department of Justice 
" December 12, 1872. 

"Acti3«5^g Gover:n"^or Pi:n^chback, ^ew Orleans, 
Louisiana : 
Let it be understood that you are recognized by 
the President as the lawful executive of Louisiana, 



20 

and that tlio body assembled at Mccliaiiies' Insti- 
tute is the lawful Legislature of the Stale; and it is 
suggested that you make proclamation to that ef- 
fect, and alao that all necessary assistance will be 
given to you and the Legislature herein recognized 
to protect the IState from disorder and violence. 

'' GEO. H. WILLIAMS, 

'^Atturney General^ 
(Louisiana Investigation, page 59.) 

The moderate and temperate carriage that we 
have prescribed to ourselves as proper to be main- 
tained under all the aggravating circumstances of 
these unconstitutional, illegal, reprehensible and 
nn warrantable proceedings (we borrow these epi- 
thets from a standing Oomniittee of the Senate), 
will not allow to your committee to characterize 
such correspondence as this with the Chief Magis- 
trate of the Union and his Minister of justice as 
we think perhaps it deserves. 

But we may be pardoned for expressing our mor- 
tiiication ihat any person holding office under the 
government, should have allowed his imagination 
to conceive that such communications were proper 
for those officers to receive. We do not understand 
how honest and faithful administration can be car- 
ried on when the subordinates of the administra- 
tion can think it possible that their cliiefs are in- 
terested in such sordid aims, or could employ the 
power of the LUiion to give them effect. 

Where there is official indecorum in correspon- 
ence we are apt to look for official mal-ad minis- 
tration elsewhere. Where power is usurped or 



21 

abused, fidelity to trusts rarely exist. So that we 
are not surjirised at the cor.dition of the Postotnce 
of the city, nor that the accused should menace his 
associates in the Customhouse with revelations of 
their own dishonor with which to astound the coun- 
try. The inquiry urgently arises upon this melan- 
choly record, what Avas the motive or the temptation 
to the commission of the ignominious conduct 
disclosed by this investigation of the Senate's Com- 
mittee"? In contemplating the state and condi- 
tion of Louisiana, it would be diiiicult to con- 
jecture a task more onerous than would fall upon 
honorable, disinterested, able and patriotic men 
who might be charged with the administration of 
her government. Order is to be drawn from chaos 
— fidelity and responsibility are to be imposed 
where there have been licentiousness and corrup- 
tion. Credit and confidence have to be extracted 
from conditions of insolvency and discredit. Har- 
mony is to be established between discordant popu- 
lations of diiferent races and conditions. The 
wounds and bruises of years of misrule, sutfering 
and discontent are to be bound up and mollified. 

Does anything appear in the testimony before 
the country to warrant the belief that the persons 
Avho have been brought to its notice as connected 
with these measures were ambitious of performing 
so patriotic a task for the State or tlie Union? 
The State of Louisiana may be now likened to a 
ship which has been under tlie command of a reck- 
less and dissolute master, with turbulent riotous 
and wasteful mates, and a crew^ disorderly, wrang- 



22 

ling and mutinous, wbo have had quarrels, conten- 
tions and tumults wliich have ended in revolt, the 
marooning of the master and some of the mates, 
the seizure and casting away of the ship, and the 
pillage of the wreck by the crew and wreckers from 
the neighboring coast, to the ruin of the owners of 
the ship, the cargo and the underwriters. 

Tbe Committee have most deliberately examined 
the position of aifairs of the State at this time, and 
now report to the people the result. 

The inaction of this Congress left the dominant 
control of aifairs here in the hands of the President 
of the United States. We are not aware of any 
action of his upf>n these affairs except what is known 
to the People. The army is here, and so far as we 
know or can conclude, witli orders to crush out im- 
pediments to the peaceful administration of the 
government that had its origin in the seizure of the 
State Capitol under its wing, and the organization of 
a Legislature selected by Bovee, Lynch, Longstreet 
and Hawkins, and imposed by the writs of Antoine. 
That case of Antoine served its function Avithin the 
four days of the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th of Decem- 
ber, during which Pinchback was inaugurated and 
recognized in the manner before stated. Motions 
were placed upon the files of the Circuit Court to 
dismiss the bill for want of jurisdiction, and a de- 
murrer was filed assigning the same cause and a day 
was fixed for their hearing. Before that day arrived, 
on motion ot the plaintiff's attorney, the bill was 
withdrawn from the Court. In the address to the 
people of the United States, dated the 23d of De- 



23 

oember, 1872, tliis scnteuco occurs wliicdi indicates 
that this termination was, as it were, foreordained. 
The Oommitee say : 

*' Since the meeting in I^ew Orleans under whicli 
the committee was appointed, we have been met 
with the suggestion, that these orders and acts (of 
the Circuit Court) were facts accomplished, and 
that their revocation or rescission would not res- 
tore the status quo^ and that our complaints, there- 
fore, are unreasonable." 

It is proper to say that this suggestion was made at 
the Department of Justice, by Mr. Attorney Gen- 
eral Williams. It was impossible for us to deny 
that the Circuit Court of the United States could 
not by a cancellation of its seizing order, or the 
dissolution of its injunctions afford redress. The 
acts did not receive their effect from those orders or 
injunctions which were absolutely void, but by the 
employment of the army to maintain them, notwith- 
standing their violation of law. But what a load 
of responsibility does not this impose upon all the 
authors and agents in the making and executing of 
such orders ! 

The reports from the majority of the Senate, and 
from Senator Trumbull and Senator Hill, show a 
magnanimous determination on their part to con- 
sider the claims of our people Avith impartiality, 
and to afford the relief that in their judgment was 
proper upon the acts of usurpation, illegality, vio- 
lence and fraud, that were so demonstrably proved 
to lie at the foundation of the Pinchback and Ke - 
logg governments. 



24 

Their reports are Jiiispices of a more liberal, 
uniiupassioned, and we will add, statesmanlike tem- 
per, in dealing with the C(miplicated and difficult 
condition in wliicli the aiiairs of this section of the 
Union have been involved. 

The address of the Committee to the People of 
the United States was received by the newspaper 
Press of the United States in a liberal, generous 
and friendly spirit. The favorable discussions and 
notices of the Press displayed a manliness and an 
ability wldch w^e cannot too higlily commend or 
too cordially appreciate. It did not underv^alue the 
gravity of the questions, nor the magnitude of the 
interests involved. To these discussions we at- 
tribute the interest that the People of the United 
States liave manifested in the subject. 

Our principal reliance must be upon the awaken- 
ed conscience and the sober second thought of that 
People. There is no reason why they should be 
vindictive or cruel, nor that they should desire that 
Eorce should be liight, and that Eight and Wrong 
and Justice should lose their distinctive names, and 
only have the name of Power. 

That people are^ divided among States, and the 
humiliation and degradation of a State of the Union 
to the level of a province, deprived of the rights of 
self-government, can only be the harbinger of simi- 
lar woes to themselves. 

We have asked nothing of the American people, 
of their President, Congress, or Judges, in any 
intemperate, immodest, or minatory form of ad- 



25 

dress. We have not asked tlieiu to execute any 
vengeance upon any person or party in our behalf. 
We have submitted to them whether it is not i)roper 
for them to uphold tlieir own Constitution, to re- 
quire fidelity and honor from their own oificers in 
performance of duties they have imposed upon 
them ; and wliether it does not behoove them to 
maintain the covenants of union among the States, 
and to maintain the stability of State governments 
and the privileges of local self-government, so that 
tranquillity, justice and liberty be maintained. 

To these their own honor, pride, and sense of 
what is due to themselves, are as much engaged as 
our ov»^n. Our own petition for ourselves may be 
embodied in the language of a statesman — a 
patriot — and though of another age and country, 
still one of the forefathers of our Constitution and 
liberties, when making, on behalf of his fellow 
commoners, some of whom have posterity in our 
own land, his Petitio:n^ of Eight : " We ask no 
more than what a worm trodden on would ask if 
it conld speak, ' 1 pray you to tread on me no 
more.' " 

Your own committee cannot recommend to the 
people of this vState respect for the government that 
has been established in the manner set forth in the 
reports of the committee, for the reason that it is 
not respectable. 

We recommend that a permanent committee of 

seventy members be appointed, with powersj to 

collect a large amount of testimony 'that exists, 

which the committee of the Senate did not collect. 
4 



26 

That testimony be collected of the mal-adminis- 
tratioii under which the State groans from the Fed- 
eral officers of this State, and of tlie State, whereby 
property has been rendered insecure, its value di- 
minished, confidence destroyed, and persons im- 
poverished and oppressed. 

We recommend that our grievances be submitted 
to the Legislatures of all the States of this Union, 
and to Congress when it shall be again in session. 

We recommend that the cooperation and assist- 
ance of other committees, who ai*e charged to pro- 
mote judiciary and administrative reforms, be 
solicited. 

We recommend that all of the people of this 
State be organized to accomplish reform in our 
State administration, and to promote economy, 
retrenchment, and official responsibility. 

vyWe recommend that the colored population of 
this State be protected, encouraged, assisted, and 
that what is needed for their improvement, guid- 
ance and progress, be assured ; and that this be a 
standing principle of act and counsel in the deal- 
ings towards them. 

We recommend the preservation of a temperate, 
moderate and sedate deportment on the part of our 
people, so that we may show to the world that the 
inherent force and strength of our population is 
equal to the occasion of maintaining ourselves in 
the presence of an ignominious government, im- 
posed by usurpation, violence and fraud, according 



27 



to the report of a committee over whom we had no 
influence or control, and in which we had no repre- 
sentative. 



THOS. A. ADAMS, Chairman, 

JOHN A. CAMPBELL, / Executive Committee 

J, N. LEA, I of the Committee 

J. AD. EOZIEE, ( of Two Hundred 

ALEXA^DEK BKOTHEE, 
L H. STAUFFEK, 
New Orleans, March 22, 1873. 



7 



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